When James is 9
by live4books
Summary: James Sirius Potter has always know he and his family were famous, but why? An encounter with a Rita Skeeter book one day finally makes Harry tell James about the past.......
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I Do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.**

**Please R&R. :)**

**Also as a side note- I have had this these 2 chapters done for awhile now, but got into a bit of writer's block and started working on my other fanfiction which is already up. I will try to get back to this one asap, but please bear with me.**

**ENJOY!**

When James is 9:

I always knew my mum and dad were famous. It was rare for the Potter family to go out and not have people stop and stare at us. I caught glimpses of us in the Daily Prophet when mum or dad weren't being careful. They never let on why our family was famous. Its not even just my family, but my entire extended family. Basically all the Weasleys are famous and it seems to be related but none of the grown-ups will say.

Teddy knows. He may not really be my real brother but is a big brother to me. He has known for years now, but he is already in his fifth year at Hogwarts. I always try to ask him why we are famous, but he just keeps saying that dad will tell me when I'm old enough. I think when dad yelled at him about a certain chocolate frog incident, Teddy was convinced not to say anything…. When mum finally allowed us to start eating sweets….lets just say there were rules. For the longest time we were not allowed to have any chocolate frogs. That rule changed a little when Teddy gave me a couple of frogs after his second year at Hogwarts. Teddy was explaining to me how in every packet there is a card of a famous witch or wizard and he was starting to collect them. As I was starting to open one of the ones in front of me, Dad came in froze, pulled out his wand and said, "Accio chocolate frogs!" The look he was giving Teddy and me was scary. He yelled for mum. The next hour was not pleasant as mum continued to lecture and yell at me that I knew I wasn't allowed to have any frogs. Poor Teddy, dad pulled him in another room and yelled at Teddy how he knew I wasn't allowed to have any frogs and that he knew why. Though after that day, mum and dad said Albus, Lily, and I could have frogs only if we allowed one of them to open it. I finally understood why we couldn't have the frogs. Teddy had said each one had a card of a famous witch or wizard—dad must be on one of those cards. Another way to prevent me from knowing why we were famous. Wasn't I old enough to know yet! Isn't 9 old enough? I will be at Hogwarts in two years.

One day when dad and I are in Diagon Alley and as always there were reporters following us taking pictures that would end up in magazines about another Potter outing. I just wish I knew why they followed our every step. Sure dad made huge improvements in the Auror Department at the Ministry. Mum was a retired Quidditch player and now a reporter. Yet they did nothing else that I know of.

Soon dad and I reach our destination at Flourish and Blotts to pick up a book for mum. Dad goes off to a corner of the store to look at the household spell books mum wants and I head off towards the back out of boredom. That is when I see it "The Teenage Life of Harry Potter" by Rita Skeeter. The book also has a picture of my dad on it. I look around for dad and he was on the other side of the store looking at books Aunt Hermione might like (she really likes to read) as he already has the book mum wants. So I started to head towards the book when I notice there are a lot of other books that all have to do with my family, mainly dad. What the bloody hell did he do? (Mum would kill Teddy if she found out he was talking like that around us.) There were books on Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, even one on mum's family. How have I never seen these books before?!

Soon dad walks over to where I am and I'm a little nervous. What if he gets mad at me for seeing all this? O Well, I want to know, I'm old enough.

"James, what are you looking…." My dad freezes when he sees the books right in front of me.

"Dad? Why are you famous? Why are there so many books about you and the rest of the family?"

"James" he said kind of sternly, great I'm in trouble. "I guess it is time that you knew, but not here, home."

I couldn't believe it! I was finally going to find out! I couldn't wait to get home. I have been waiting forever to find out why we are so famous. Yet, I also see a down side to this. Reporters are smashed up against the window and flash bulbs are going off.

"Great," dad says. "Just what the public needs to read about. I can see tomorrow's headline, 'James Potter Finally Knows the Truth' or something like that. Well, James looks like we are going to Apparate home from here to avoid all this."

Stupid reporters, they always get dad in a bad mood. Strange that mum is one though. I guess I might learn why dad can't stand them when he tells me what this family did.

Dad pays for the books and I take his arm as we Apparate home. Right before we are gone, I hear complaining from the people outside that they won't get a quote now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, J.K Rowling does.**

As soon as dad walks in the door he calls for mum.

"Ginny, he saw, we need to talk."

Mum comes into the room, but not in a cheerful mood as she usually does.

"We knew this day was coming, I just didn't think it would be so soon."

"Well, by tomorrow the rest of the wizarding world will know too. The dam..er…stupid reporters (mum still gives dad a look when he starts to curse around us) were all excited that he finally saw and we have the "joy" of sharing our history with our son."

Mum and dad look into each other's eyes with a look of sadness. What could be so sad about being famous?

"James, lets go into the kitchen to talk." As soon as dad walked into the kitchen he pulled out his wand and started saying spells. Mum looked at me and said, "its so your brother and sister don't hear, along with any other eavesdroppers."

I sit down at the table and Mum and Dad sit down on either side.

"Son, it is a long sad story on why we are famous. It is hard to think about, but impossible to forget. The reason I am famous goes far back to when I was only one year old. You see there was very evil wizard named Lord Voldemort. He murdered my parents, your grandparents, and tried to kill me. For some unknown reason at the time, I survived and he disappeared. That is where I got my scar from. As you know, I was raised be the muggles and then went to Hogwarts when I was eleven. It was at that school were I met your mum and all your aunts and uncles. That year I met Voldemort for the second time where Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione helped me along the way. I kept him from returning that year and in the process his follower, Quirrell died. The next year I defeated him again went I went into the Chamber of Secrets to save your mum. Though at the time she was only the sister of my best friend. The beginning of third year was about to start when news of an escaped prisoner was released. His name was Sirius Black."

"Wait," said I, "my middle name is Sirius" in a quizzical tone.

"Yes" dad replied, "you will find out the reason here shortly." He took a deep sigh before going on.

"That summer, all the adults were being extra nice to me, but also being overprotective. I didn't know why until I over heard your grandparents the night before leaving for Hogwarts. Sirius was put in Azkaban for murdering Peter Pettigrew and a bunch of muggles right after the fall of Voldemort. All the guards knew was he had escaped and before he kept saying "He's at Hogwarts, he's at Hogwarts." Everyone thought the "he" was me. I spent the entire year having people watch over me but it ended up that it didn't matter. During the last weeks of school, the truth came out. Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, and me had all gone down to visit Hagrid before Buckbeak was executed. It was then that Hagrid told Ron that he had found Scabbers, Ron's rat. The entire year Scabbers had been sick and we though Crookshanks, Hermione's cat had ate him. As we were heading back up to the castle, a big black dog came running at us and dragged Ron by his leg to the Whopping Willow. Hermione and I followed them all the way to the Shrieking Shack.

Dad sighed and mom squeezed his hand. That's when mom said, "this night was hard on your father, even though he got over it."

That was confusing.

Dad gave mom a look of thanks and she smiled. "Where was I? Right, Shrieking Shack. When Hermione and I reached there we found out that the dog was an animagus who was Sirius Black. Not long after, Lupin came in took Sirius' side which confused the hell…" Mom gave dad a look. " Er, confused the heck out of us. It was then we learned that Sirius did not betray my parents, but it was Peter Pettigrew. He was also an animagus and turned into a rat. Peter was the spy and who betrayed my parents. My dad, your grandfather was also an animagus. He was a stag. They became animaguses because Lupin was a werewolf. As animals, they could keep him company. They created the Marauder's Map, which shows where everyone is in Hogwarts. They even found all the secret passageways. They each had code names: Padfoot, Sirius, Moony, Lupin, Prongs, James, and Peter was Wormtail. Professor Snape soon came in and was thinking Sirius was guilty. I stunned him because I was desperate for the truth. Sirius got Wormtail to show himself as a human and that is when I accepted Sirius' story. When we were heading back to the castle, Lupin transformed into a werewolf. Sirius also transformed to protect us. During all this Wormtail escaped and went to join Voldemort."

I sat there in awe of my dad as he described fighting off the dementors and saving Buckbeak and Sirius. What was even more amazing was he did this when he was just shy of turning 14. No wonder he was so famous. I sat there for another hour as he described his 4th year. I would never be able to do what he did, fight dragons, swim with merepeople, and get through a maze let alone fight Voldemort. My dad was and still is brave.

Just then mum squeezed dad's hand as he pauses in his story. Also at that moment Lily and Albus are banging on the door wanting lunch.

"Alright, James your father will finish after lunch. We all need a break. Just remember do not tell your brother and sister. They are still to young to understand any of this."

"Yes, mum." Just then dad waved his wand and Albus and Lily come in.

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**I hope you like it so far. Please give me feedback and maybe some of that will inspire me.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything**

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait but I had writers block, a ton of homework, trying to figure out class schedules for the summer and fall, and bunch of other things that all like to happen at one time. I know this is short too, but I really wanted to get something up. I want to thank everyone who has reviewed, favorite, and alerted the story. It makes me feel so happy when I see that and puts adds to the need to update. So if you want updates faster please review! Ideas will be very helpful as I am not sure where I am going with this at the moment and my busy life does not let me have extra time to think about it that much.**

**Hope you like it!**

I noticed that all during lunch Albus keeps glancing over at me. Man, the moment he finds me alone he is going to pounce to try to get me to spill the story. Albus is going to hate me. I know he will say something to do with us being brothers and I should share what I know with him. Lily on the other hand would just be annoying for about a week trying to pester it out of me. After that she would get distracted with something else and leave me alone. She is still too young to really care. Mum and dad are right. Both Albus and Lily (especially Lily) are too young to hear any of this. I am still having a hard time picturing my dad doing everything he says he did. It is amazing he did all that before he was fifteen. The only thing I know is that everything has to be good in the end….mum, dad, Aunt Hermione, Uncle Ron, and so many others are alive. Though there are already names that dad has mentioned that I don't know who they are like Sirius Black. He must die at some point otherwise I know he would be around a lot after hearing my dad describe him. Poor dad, he has had a really hard life and stupid Rita Skeeter does not make it any easier. Maybe I can somehow get back at her one day……

"James" I hear Albus call my name. Man, why did mum and dad have to leave the kitchen. They should know Al would started bothering me right away.

"So tell me! What is the big family secret?! Dad was put up all the charms so even the extendable ears wouldn't work. But you are going to tell me right?"

How could I possibly explain what mum and dad just told me to a seven year old? Though Al would probably not even believe me if I started to tell him. Dad's life, I am finding is very strange, confusing, and dangerous.

Al is bouncing off his seat in excitement as I am trying to think of what to do. He is going to hate me, but I can't tell him. Mum is right, Al is too young for this. Now that I am hearing it, it almost seems that I am too young to finally know the story (not that I will ever admit that to my parents though). I wonder how much dad is leaving out now that I think of it. He won't tell a nine year old all the details.

I look at Al and he sees my decision when I avoid eye contact.

"James, we are BROTHERS! Why won't you tell me! We tell each other everything! I HATE YOU! Now that you know you are just going to ditch me to hang out with all the older cousins. I thought you were cool."

"Al, I promised mum and dad that I wouldn't say anything. I'm really really really really sorry. Besides I don't know if I could even tell you everything because there is so much and from what dad was saying things are just now starting to happen. I know you are going to hate me even more for saying this, but you really have to wait for mum and dad to tell you."

The look on Al's face was killing me. We had fought before….we are brothers, but he never looked so hurt. I felt really bad but I knew I was doing the right thing. Just then dad came in to see what we were fighting about this time.

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**Again if you want updates faster.....REVIEW please. :)**


	4. AN

A/N: I'm upset that I am doing this, but I haven't updated for awhile, and am sorry so say it will still be awhile longer. The amount of tests, projects, and papers the past few weeks for me has been crazy and next week is finals. So at minimum, I will try really hard to update in the first week of May. I know that is a long time, but I really need to study and I want the next chapter to be really good.

I want to thank everyone for the reviews! I really appreciate them and they let me know other people like what I'm writing. Again sorry for the wait, but I will make sure the next chapter is really good.

Also I have a favor to ask, I'm trying to figure out if I should just sum up Harry's "adventures" or if I should go into detail about them. Let me know what you want.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N : Sorry for the delay, but here is my update. I really hope you like it. Tell me what you think! :)**

"Alright! That is enough you two. Now what are you rowing about this time?"

For a second I thought Al would be to ashamed to tell dad the truth, but instead he does open his big mouth.

"Why does James get to know the big family secret? I want to know. I have to deal with the stupid reporters too. Please dad, please tell me."

"Well, I am impressed James, you did not tell your brother. On the other hand, Al I am disappointed that you tried to get James to tell when your mum and I told James not to tell you. Al, there is a reason why we don't want to tell you yet. I know you have grown up, but you are too young. James is two years older than you. I can promise you that when you turn nine, mum and I will tell you the 'secret' as you kids call it."

"Fine," Al mumbled as he walked out of the room still mumbling his complaints about being left out of everything.

Dad looked at me and gave a half smile. I could tell he did not like having to relive this part of his life. It made me think about if me I should continued to pester him about it, but then again who knows when I will find out what happened during his last three years of school. He led me into the kitchen again where he placed half a dozen spells around us again to keep Al and Lily from eavesdropping. I sat down with mum and dad across from me waiting for them to start. After two minutes of silence I decided they were waiting for me to say or ask something.

"So, you really fought and escaped Voldemort at the end of your fourth year?" I asked.

"Yeah, though as I said I was very lucky. Our wands had twin cores, so they would not duel against each other properly. That is main reason I got away, at least in my opinion it was. Then also as I told you before lunch, Professor Moody was actually a Death Eater imposter that was using Polyjuice Potion so he could deliver me to Voldemort. Dumbledore believed me right away along with my friends, but the rest of the wizarding world was not so keen on believing me."

I had to ask, "why not? Did the Minister really think you would make this up?"

Mum was the one who answered me surprisingly. "James you have to understand, many people thought Voldemort was dead. Even if they believed he was not dead, they did not want to believe he was back. Everyone enjoyed the 14 years of peace and did not want to go back into a panic state. Even many of our classmates that knew your dad did not believe him when we returned to Hogwarts the next year. The Daily Prophet was feeding lies to the public day after day to discredit anyone who believed what your dad was saying. This next year we are about to tell you about was really hard on everyone, particularly your dad. He went through hell."

It took me a minute to digest what mum had just told me. How could the wizarding world turn their back on my dad, especially since many people seemed to love him? Dad interrupted my thoughts with a small cough then began his tail of his fifth year.

"Well, to say I was upset was an understatement. As your mum mentioned no one was taking me serious and it seemed the Ron and Hermione were keeping secrets from me using the excuse that the information was too important to be put into letters in case they were intercepted. Which was true. Anyways, I was out one night and ran into Dudley on the way home. I also ran into a couple of dementors that were trying to attack us. I did the only thing I could think of, the Patronus Charm. I finally produced my stag and he scared off the dementors. After dragging Dudley home and finding out Dumbledore had people tailing me all summer, I got an owl from the Ministry saying I was expelled and they were coming to take my wand. Luckily Dumbledore sorted everything out and I just had a trial. After a few days members of the Order of the Phoenix came and took me to headquarters where Ron, Hermione, Sirius, and the rest of the Weasleys were staying. I stayed there the rest of the summer and went to my trial, where I was cleared of all charges after Dumbledore made sure the court gave me a fair trial."

"Harry dear, you are forgetting that you also blew up at us regularly since we kept you out of the loop" mum said with a smirk.

"That is no longer important" dad said as his face began to turn red.

I looked at them questioningly, and mum was the one that answered. "This year, your dad lost his temper a lot. Though a lot of us could not blame him with the way the Ministry and everyone else was treating him. Not to mention those teenage hormones kicking in."

I found it kind of amusing that mum was continuing to smirk at dad over this. Apparently dad's temper was a major part of his fifth year, and by the look on dad's face he seems to be a little ashamed of it.

"Anyways," dad said to continue, "We returned to Hogwarts where many students believed what the Prophet was saying, that I was a lying attention seeking troubled youth. To make matters worse the Ministry began to interfere at Hogwarts by placing Dolorous Umbridge (both mum and dad shuttered when he said her name) in the DADA position. She purposely made my life hell. She would always taunt me and do anything to drive me mad. When her power was not strong enough, she just went to Fudge who would give her more power. The way she taught DADA was pointless. All we did was read the dumbest book ever. I blew up at her several times earning myself many detentions. During those detentions she made me use a blood quill carving the words 'I must not tell lies' into my hand."

I had always wondered where dad got those scars on the back of his hand from….one mystery solved.

I just sat in the chair stunned at what dad said the ministry did to him all during his fifth year. I was very impressed when he told me about the DA, though of course now that he is a dad, "If I ever hear about you doing something like that when you are at school..."

How come parents are always like that? They tell you all the trouble they got into when they were your age, but if you do it equals grounding for a month.

"Now James, the next part of my fifth year is very important, as it will be a vital part of my seventh year. Because it is very important and it is almost time for your mum to start dinner we will continue this discussion tomorrow. Also James, again please do not tell your brother and sister any of this. They will know when they are your age. I am proud of you for not telling Al earlier."

"Ok boys, out of the kitchen unless you want to help with dinner," mum said.

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**Let me know what you like, what you don't like by hitting that review button. I think the next chapter might just be Harry and Ginny talking and reflecting on what is happening. **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: First, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, favored, and altered the story. Please keep it up.**

**Second, I am so sorry it has been a long time since I have updated. I would like part of this chapter then change it when I came up with something else. I forget how many drafts I did for this chapter. Also, I tried to make it longer, but this chapter fought with me to stay short. I promise the next chapter will be long.**

**Third, as …… pointed out in a review, James and Al are only one year apart not two. So for now on James is still 9, but Al is now 8.**

**Fourth is the disclaimer: I own none of this. J.K. Rowling does because she is amazing, duh.**

Ginny watched as James bolted out of the kitchen to escape any type of chores assigned to him. Harry stay seated where he was.

"I'll help you love, besides I need to clear my head of all these flashbacks."

They silently worked next to each other for a few minutes until Ginny broke the silence. "Harry, do you want to talk about it?" Ginny knew Harry was having a hard time reliving his teenage years. Those years were hard enough on her and she knew Harry had an even worse experience as he suffered in the limelight and was in the middle of all the action and drama.

"You know me so well," Harry said. Ginny chuckled, and then got serious.

"Yes I do, now are you wishing you could have kept this from James longer and how are doing with traveling down memory lane?"

Harry sighed, then said, "I think it is the right time to tell James. I like him finding out by us telling him rather than through incomplete sources. Also he has to know before Hogwarts. I can already see the other students talking about it; ever since Skeeter managed to publish that book."

"Now Harry, you and I both know her book actually has a lot of truth in it, since the Minister made sure the 'Golden Trio' had a chance to edit it."

"Thank goodness for Hermione. The look on Skeeter's face was priceless when she saw all the edits Hermione did. It was just to bad the Minister couldn't stop it from being published. I agree with the Minister that the story had to be told, but I wish it wasn't Skeeter. But none of us had the time or wanted to write a bloody book about our lives."

Ginny continued to let him rant. This wasn't the first time (and certainly no the last time) that Harry complained about the book. Of course Rita sent the Potter family a free copy which Harry almost threw in the fire, but Ginny saved it. She said it could be interesting to read and besides they could hind it from view if need be.

Fifteen minutes later Harry was done and Ginny was smiling. She never got tired of Harry complaining about Skeeter. She had hurt him, her friends, and her family too much over the years with her writing.

There was a minute of silence, then Harry sighed and turned towards Ginny. "It definitely is the right time to tell James. He seems to be taking it well and before long he will hear and or see something from random people. I remember my first trip to Diagon Alley. It was overwhelming just for going there for the first time, but then having everyone stare at me for something I just learned about. It will be like or worse for James when he goes to Hogwarts just because we are his parents. Everyone will be asking him questions about the family, since we all played a big part in the war. I just feel bad about what we have to tell him next. Those events were hard enough on me, and I was older than him."

"Don't worry Harry, we will figure out a way to tell him without completely scaring him.

Now, dinner is ready so go get those kids," Ginny said with a smile.

After Dinner…….

"Please dad! _Please_ will you tell me about the rest of your fifth year now. _Please!_" I continued to plead while dad shook his head no.

"I already told you I will continue tomorrow. It is getting late and you young man need to start getting ready for bed. I promise you, we will continue tomorrow. Now go."

"Okay," as I hung my head in defeat and headed upstairs.

**So I hoped you like it. Let me know by pressing that little green button, even if you didn't like it. I love reviews. I have most of the next chapter written. I just to type it into my computer and finish it up. I am really trying to finish it up fast, but my summer has been anything but relaxing with a summer class to get it out of the way, 2 jobs, and nagging parents to fill out more job applications and so on.**

**Also did anyone else see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at midnight? I did with my best friend! It was an awesome movie, just wished they didn't leave out as many detail as they did, but thats Hollywood for you.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello! I am soooo sorry it has been forever since I have updated. Please forgive me! I have excuses, they are just lame but I will still give them to you. I have had a super busy semester. No, I have been so busy that I have lost count of the days where I literally did not have time to eat. I had just enough time to get food and eat as I walked out the door to my next class, meeting, or activity. There have also been many days were I am nonstop for like 12 hours and then can relax and start on homework. It has been ridiculous. I also have had to write a lot of papers this semester, so then I didn't feel like writing fanfic. Only 10 more days til break though!!!**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter. Sorry if towards the end it seems a little different. I wrote most of this months ago and now just finished it.**

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"Dad, dad, dad, wake up!" I said as I jumped on my parents' bed at 7 o'clock in the morning. "You promised you would continue telling me about your fifth year today."

Normally I would sleep in until noon whenever I could, but I was so excited that dad was finally telling me about his past. I swear it is the biggest mystery in the Potter/Weasley family. I continued to jump on their bed until dad finally cracked.

"All right, I'm up. Go downstairs and we'll meet you in the kitchen."

"Hooray!" I said as I ran towards the door.

Thirty minutes later dad and mum were sitting at the table with cups of coffee. Dad was finishing up the spells to keep Al and Lily away and I was waiting patiently for him to finish. Fine, in reality I was bouncing up and down in my chair waiting for him to finish.

"James, sit still," mum said.

"Alright James, do you remember everything I told you yesterday, especially about fifth year?" dad asked.

"Yes." I quickly recounted the events he told me as he and mum sat there listening.

"Very good, now pay attention closely because it gets a little confusing now. I can't remember how much I have told you about my scar, but I'm going to re-explain as sadly it is highly important. Now since first year, whenever Voldemort was near me or feeling a strong amount of hate, my scar would burst into pain. I would also dream about different things he was up to. Dumbledore knew about the connection when I told him about the pain episodes."

"Anyways 5th year I always had these dreams about a black door in a hallway. Some nights I would travel through the door to other doors, like there was a certain place I wanted to get to. Anyways, one night I had a similar dream, but it was different."

Dad paused for a second and mum squeezed his hand encouragingly. This dream must have been hard on him, but it was a dream, wasn't it?

"In this dream I saw the door, but from a different perspective. I was a snake. The snake smelt a human and that is when I/it saw your Grandpa Weasley asleep with an invisibility cloak sliding off him. The snake was going to leave him alone at first, but then Grandpa Weasley began to stir and wake up. The snake could no longer ignore him. The snake attacked your grandpa and I then woke up and was sick. The guys in my dorm went to go get Professor McGonagall. I was relieved when I heard that, because I knew she was in the Order. I tried explaining what I saw. She thought it was a bad dream, but I remained adamant that it was real. So she took your Uncle Ron and me to Dumbledore. He had me explain it again. I got really frustrated because he wasn't reacting and I knew how bad your grandpa was hurt. Finally Dumbledore acted by sending the portraits of previous headmasters and mistresses to go and raise an alarm so the right people could find and help your grandpa. McGonagall went and got the rest of the Weasleys and we took a portkey to Sirius's house."

"Wait, you guys left Hogwarts in the middle of the year?!" I asked.

"Well, yes and no. The next day was the first day of Christmas Break. So we only left a few hours early. Still Umbridge was furious that we left. The next morning a few Order members came by to escort us to St. Mungos to visit grandpa. He was actually doing well for the seriousness of his injury. The main problem was the venom would not allow the bites to heal, so he would continue to bleed. Of course Fred and George were pestering him about what he was doing, like if he was guarding the weapon Voldemort wanted and so on. Your grandma got angry and shooed us out. As any good pair of pranksters, Fred and George had the extendable ears and we all listened in on the conversation. Moody had mentioned that I was seeing things from inside Voldemort's snake and I was being possessed. From that moment I thought I was the weapon."

"But dad, how could you? You knew the weapon had to be behind the black door grandpa was sitting in front of, and you weren't behind it. Besides didn't Voldemort want you dead? Why would he want to use you? I tried to continue my little rant of how thick could dad be to have thought what I thought when mum busted out laughing.

"Oh, James you are acting just like Ron, Hermione, and I did. We tried to make him see logic and he just wouldn't until I mentioned I had been possessed. James, as a teen, your dad would get a crazy idea and make as many explanations as he needed to, to make his idea plausible. It was always hard to get him to listen to reason and logic."

Dad was glaring at mum as I began to laugh. Mum just smiled at dad and asked, "do you want to continue, or do you want to let me take over?"

"Well, if you are going to continue to make fun of me, you can continue."

Mum giggled, then picked up the story. "Well when we got back to Headquarters, your dad disappeared and locked himself in a room. He refused food and everything. Finally Hermione showed up. I told her what had happened and that your father had locked himself in a room upstairs. She marched right up there and somehow got him to come down and talk to us. That is when he confessed that he thought he was the weapon. He continued to pitch us these stupid theories on how he traveled to London and back in all of 3 minutes until Ron shot that down by saying he watched your dad thrashing around in bed. After that blow, I mentioned that if he had questions about being possessed he should ask me as I had been. Since he had no blank periods in his life and could remember everything he wasn't being possessed."

"You must have been happy to know you weren't the weapon Voldemort was after, huh dad?"

"You have no idea son." The look on my dad's face when he said that was priceless. Needless to say, I started laughing.

"James," my mother chided. "It is not funny. Now apologize to your father."

"Sorry dad, but your face was funny."

Dad just rolled his eyes at me. "Now, a few other things happened, but they are not that important. Christmas holiday that year had many ups and downs with drama. The main one I got pulled into was Dumbledore wanted me to learn Occlumency, which is learning to close your mind to stop others from entering it; kind of like mind reading. The problem was Professor Snape was the one who was going to teach me. Sirius got into a big fight with him over the theory that Snape would hurt me somehow during the lessons.—"

"—Why did Dumbledore want you to learn Occlumency?" I cut in.

"I was getting to that," dad said with a smile. "He didn't want me in Voldemort's head anymore. He feared the night I saw your grandpa attacked, I was so far in Voldemort's mind that he sensed my presence. Dumbledore did not want Voldemort to have access to my mind, thus I needed to learn how to close my mind."

I noticed mum shoot dad a glare. I wonder if he did learn it or not….

"Soon the holiday was over and we went back to Hogwarts. I had lessons with Professor Snape, which to say the least were a disaster. Part of it was I wanted to know what was behind the door, and the other part was I hated Snape during that time in my life, so I wasn't very motivated to practice. Also my scar always hurt worse after every lesson. I thought Snape was doing this to me on purpose, making it easier for Voldemort to get inside my head. Aunt Hermione was always asking how I was doing and I would tell her I was doing fine."

Mum made a little coughing noise, which meant dad lied….

"So besides dad not learning Occlumency," he shot me a glare and mum smirked at him, "what else happened after winter holidays?" Both mum and dad's faces became very solemn then.

"A few weeks into break, ten Death Eaters escaped Azkaban. To make it worse, these ten were some of the worse feared, including Bellatrix. Then to add another blow to me, Fudge said it was because of Sirius. I knew that was completely wrong and hated that he was blaming someone so nice, caring, and good. Though as usual, Hermione came up with a brilliant solution." At this dad's face lit up. "I didn't find out what she was planning until the next Hogsmeade trip when I just had to meet her at the Three Broomsticks. I went there after a horrible date with Cho—"

"Wait, who?" I asked. I had never heard of Cho… I wonder how jealous mum was…

"Don't worry about it, anyways when I got to the Three Broomsticks, Hermione, Luna, and Rita Skeeter were all sitting together. Hermione's plan was to have Rita interview me, only write the facts, and publish the story in the Quibbler so my story could reach the public. I found it easier than I thought to do the interview. I think part of it was I knew this was my one chance to convince people Voldemort was back. It took a couple of weeks, but one morning I was all of a sudden bombarded with owls. They were from people who had read my interview. Some believed me, others didn't, and some were still on the fence. It was great though because I knew people were starting to believe me and support me. Umbridge was furious, but I didn't care. It was one of the best moments of my fifth year. Though after the interview, it seemed everything went down from there."

Dad paused there and squeezed mum's hand. "Well James, I think it is time for a break so your mum can make lunch. I also need to pop into the Ministry just to check up on a few things and fill out some paperwork."

"Awwww, please continue," I begged. "It's barely eleven. Pleaseeeeee."

"No James," mum said. "Now go, we will continue later today. I promise."

"Fine," I said in a defeated tone.

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